CHOICES to Expand to Carbondale, Illinois
Almost 4,000 people a year depend
Our legacy of responding to the
a clinic. But we’re taking action
and we will provide abortions in
now that CHOICES is expanding
our community who needs an
on CHOICES for abortion care,
Memphis up until the moment that these new bans go into effect.
Even then, CHOICES Memphis isn’t
needs of the community remains into Southern Illinois, and as such we’re proud to announce that in
PLANNED PARENTHOOD
05/09/2022 - Memphis, TN
– Today, CHOICES: Memphis
Center for Reproductive Health announced its plans to open a
clinic in Carbondale, IL in response to the impending abortion ban in TN. The new clinic will be
operational this year to provide
access to abortion care for people
in the Southeast, and the Memphis clinic will remain open continuing
going anywhere. Our Memphis
clinic will remain open to provide all the other important services,
ranging from no-cost birth control, gender affirming care, midwifery, and general reproductive health care. Marching boldly forward to care for our community is
simply who we are, and that’s why CHOICES is proud to announce that we are opening a clinic in Carbondale, Illinois.
addition to abortion care, our new Carbondale clinic will provide
gender affirming care from the first day we open our doors in August 2022. And we won’t stop there.
CHOICES is committed to being an
asset to the communities we serve,
and we believe deeply that abortion belongs within the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. So, we’ve developed a phased approach
Reproductive Health, we pride
ourselves on our long history of
firsts in response to the needs of
our community. Founded in 1974, CHOICES was the first abortion
provider in Memphis. In the early 2000s, CHOICES accomplished more firsts for our community,
stop on the Amtrak line, this facility will be the Southernmost abortion provider in Illinois, a lifeline for
people in the Southeast who need an abortion. Moreover, Illinois is a
shining example of how states can protect abortion access and the
right to abortion without restriction. A 2019 state law protecting access to abortion makes the state, in the words of Gov. Pritzker, “beacon of hope for [people] who need reproductive health."
for transgender individuals,
incredible heart of the Carbondale
care for people living with HIV, and fertility assistance for same sex
couples. Most recently, CHOICES built the first birth center in
Memphis and became the first
nonprofit in the US to offer full-
spectrum reproductive health care,
ranging from abortion to midwiferybased birth and perinatal services, all under one roof.
community can be, and we have no doubt that we can make it through this storm together.
sexual and reproductive healthcare
The location is what originally
contraception and preconception
already know how powerful our
community. A three-hour drive
including introducing genderaffirming hormone therapy
dire, but not without hope. We
CHOICES is an independent,
is recognized as an essential
At CHOICES: Memphis Center for
The situation in Tennessee is
us to continue to provide abortion
from Memphis and Nashville and a
that will retain the right to abortion.
take all of us working together.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
CHOICES envisions a world where
IL, the closest state to Tennessee
communities — and it’s going to
including a birth center.
care for folks in our Memphis
essential abortion care in Southern
they’re ready, and live in thriving
MEMPHIS CENTER FOR
midwifery care. CHOICES’ bold
in Memphis and create access to
and patient-centered space when
at our new clinic with the goal of
becoming a full-spectrum provider,
to critical reproductive health care
need, build their families in a safe
ABOUT CHOICES:
Our new Carbondale clinic will allow
plan will ensure continued access
abortion can get the care they
to gradually increase services
to provide essential reproductive and sexual healthcare, including
so that every single person in
drew us to Carbondale, but the community is what let us know
we had found a second home for
CHOICES. Jennifer Pepper, CEO of CHOICES, stated, “We are excited
about the opportunity to serve the Carbondale area and surrounding
communities. We’ve been traveling to Carbondale since November of
2021 and could not have imagined a warmer welcome from the
community leaders, healthcare professionals, and nonprofits with whom we met.”
human right, and we will never stop working to realize our vision.
In Tennessee, you don’t need to look far to imagine what
abortion access will look like if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Abortion care is
already out of reach for so many people. Even though abortion
is legal, politicians have passed
laws and created obstacles that treat people differently. Young
people, people living in poverty, and people of color must work
twice as hard to make it past the
barriers to receive care. That need is going to grow in the wake of the
human rights crisis caused by lack of access to abortion care.
nonprofit reproductive health
clinic dedicated to empowering individuals in the Mid-South to
make informed choices for and
about their reproductive health.
Offering services such as abortion care, hormone management for
transgender patients, HIV testing and prevention, gynecological
wellness care, no-cost birth control, and midwife-led prenatal care
and births, CHOICES’ model of
comprehensive, patient-centered care is making waves in the
reproductive and sexual health
community. With the opening of
their new health and birth center in 2020, which includes the first
licensed birth center in Memphis, CHOICES became the only
nonprofit health care provider in the country to offer both birth services and abortion care under one roof.
We know that people with
privilege have the access and possibilities necessary to
overcome the barriers anti-
choice state lawmakers put in
place because they can afford to spend the money, take time off
work, arrange childcare, and do what they need to do to get to
Holly Calvasina Development Director hcalvasina@memphischoices.org (901)-274-3550 x 246
THE UNLEASHED VOICE |
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